2/2

Her take from robbing the sister store that bigot worked for included three different sets of old Imperial Russian crystal goblets; the contents of a display case of old jewelry and watches she planned on sitting on or selling in Mafia Land with the unneeded glassware; the ledgers of the store; an assortment of old books; and the contents of two safes as well as the register.

Antique stores also bought things brought in, which meant it was a lot more than the ready cash any shop needed to make change on any decent business day.

She couldn't take more than what she got away with as the glass had been excessively fragile, and she only made room for the jewelry and other small trinkets by wrapping them in old newspaper the store kept a supply of and using the bundles as packaging cushions along with the paper money.

It ended up being the oddest idea Sonya ever had for how to use her stolen cash, but it worked.

The ledgers were more for future research, being it had detailed accounts of who bought what she might be able to use to track down other items any contracted job asked her to. Tatiana rolling her eyes at her for stealing books was entirely unwarranted.

The other old books were just that, rare old books she just wanted for herself and couldn't talk herself out of taking.

The museum heist took a full month to plan, because the floor plan was open enough to eliminate any decent hiding spots and enable the guards to see more at a glance.

In the end, instead of waiting for night to fall and robbing the place when there was less security and civilians around, the budding thief stole one of the over glorified wax stamps out of the museum's storage area in broad daylight. She still didn't really see why someone wanted one, as anyone alive using it would probably get caught fast, but it was what she agreed to do.

That didn't mean stealing the damn thing had been easy, she in fact had to attempt it twice because she abandoned the job the first day when someone who was supposed to have been gone was still there. One of the restorers, who worked with old metal someone didn't want to melt down to be reused, apparently came in outside of his scheduled work hours to finish something up. Sonya had planned on using his office/closet as a staging area to find the seal she needed, so she was forced to wait a day.

The day after her botched attempt, when the man had been safely gone, she ended up looking for four hours due to a lack of recorded movements of certain pieces either about to be shipped off to another museum or displayed in an exhibit. When she finally found it the paperwork nearby claimed it was just about to be shipped off to a St. Petersburg museum, which made the thief very thankful she wouldn't have to go to that city to steal an extra bit of history.

The Grekov Gang ruled most of St Petersburg's underworld, and they were both more powerful and influential than the Zolotovs. Getting in there might not be much of an issue but stealing in that territory would've been a nightmare to arrange peacefully. Unless Sonya would do it silently, but that would just incite a manhunt for her as skimping on paying dues and fees like that was a very insulting snub.

Her Mafia Land job took her a total of three months to do, and due to the migratory nature of the manmade island it would take her another few weeks to close it out. Mafia Land was near the coast of South America now, air travel being what it was in the 1960s meant it was safer to take a ship across the ocean. Arseniy went with her, because neither adult liked the thought of letting her go off alone for all that she worked now.

Having the appearance of a child was starting to irritate Sonya something fierce.

It was nice to be overlooked and all every now and again but being treated like one all the time was different.

Since it was a day trip, the vor opted out of doing anything but following her around like an eerily silent bodyguard. She turned in her 'acquisitions' with her contract paperwork and picked up another one, not quite something she'd be able to do while remaining at home but something she'd be able to do while close to Moscow anyways.

Returning home would take slightly less time, but it was still a week of travel back and forth.

Sonya really hoped, but wasn't holding her breath for, being able to go alone next time.

XLVI (Thursday the 6th of April, 1961. Arseniy & Lisa's home, Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.)

"Un autre?" (Another one?) Cherep exclaimed incredulously, in French no less, peering over her shoulder.

Sonya twitched her papers away from his sight, frowning up at him even as she responded in the same language. "Oui, pourquoi es-tu surprise?" (Yes, why are you surprised?)

He just frowned back at her, running a hand through short purple hair as he thought through his words and mentally translated them. "Tu as dix ans, et tu as un emploi." (You have ten years, and you have a job.)

"J'ai presque onze ans." (I almost have eleven years.) She started to protest, then what they were about to argue about registered in her brain.

As well as the stupidity of her rebuttal, one year older did not make much of a difference taken with her current physical age. To be brutally honest, being barely three months past her tenth birthday did not make her anywhere near eleven either.

At her brother's utterly deadpan look for her attempt to argue with that as her defense, once he worked through translating it, she sheepishly coughed once while smoothing the pages face down on top of a random stack of books she was using as a desk. "J'ai presque dix ans et demi." (I almost have ten-and-half.)

In most of the world, and most of the USSR, ten-year-old children did not work. Even in the Russian underworld, Mafiya brats normally waited until they were at least classified as actual teenagers to do anything for their syndicate. Fifteen to sixteen, at earliest, and maybe a very fast growing fourteen on the rare occasions.

It was less uncommon elsewhere, but she wasn't elsewhere. Mafia Land was a blind spot in that respect, it dealt with other cultures that allowed children freedom earlier than her USSR typically did and was how her age didn't amount to a stumbling block in acquiring an actual job.

Contract-based though it may be.

When China and Italy both had five-year-old assassins and hitmen on some occasions, a ten-year-old thief from Russia didn't stick out too badly on an international stage.

Her foster brother also probably thought of her as younger than him. Which was both true and not, confusingly enough.

The thief had gotten used to thinking of herself as her physical age for most things, but the fact she used to be a twenty-year-old woman once upon a time still popped up now and again… however, she physically wasn't and that was the sticking point.

Mentally she might be able to handle the stress, but her body couldn't.

Taking another look at the limitations of her second contract, which boiled down to a time limit, then back at an increasingly wary looking Cherep… she decided she could wait.

It wouldn't kill anything.

"I have to do at bare minimum two contracts a year. Mafia Land's fiscal year ends the same as everyone else, which means the thirty-first of December. This is the last job I have to do this year, Cherep."

"Oh…" He didn't exactly look pleased with that for a long moment, but he did shift the topic away from what she was planning on doing. He also seemed stupidly thankful she switched to Russian. "Have you given any thought to joining a circus?"

"You realize the same reason why you're not happy I'm working also applies to you, right?"

"It's as illegal as hell?"

She gave him a flat look, which made the brat smirk at her. "Non. Your age, Cherep. Tatiana and I, though we are perfectly qualified to be Mafiya thieves and work as such for our clan, do not plan on moving out of this house until we're at least fifteen. I'm pretty sure Tatiana's going to wait until I can leave too, so it'll be sixteen or seventeen for her and fifteen for me. That's a little over four years away."

The only really confirmed Cloud nodded slowly as he took that fact in. "So…"

"I'm not the one that wants to join a circus. You're the one that needs to look for one, so I can dig up information on who runs it and where they go. You might also want to think about adding more languages to your plate, so you can talk to people outside the USSR. I speak four myself." Five if one wanted to get technical but English wasn't something Sonya had to use just yet, so no one knew she could speak it. "Additionally, you might want to give some thought as to what, in a circus, you want to do. We won't be allowed to just tag along, operations like that need every hand it has to make it work right."

"Mes enfants... vous êtes supposés être en train de parler en français." (My children… you are supposed to be speaking French.) Lisa called in from the hallway, making both start in surprise.

"Je suis désolée, Lisa." (I'm sorry, Lisa.) She called after their foster mother loudly.

In all honesty, she needed to brush up her French just as much as Cherep needed the practice. Her grasp on the language had faltered slightly while she had been learning Mandarin Chinese.

"En as-tu trouvé in?" (Have you found one?)

"Err... non." (…no.) Stuttered her brother through his response uneasily, more out of uncertainty of being clear than for the conversation topic. "Je suis en train d'apprendre sur les moteurs et comment ils marchent." (I've learning about engines and how they worked.)

"Et les langues je pense. Tiens moi au courant quand tu auras trouvé un cirque que tu voudras joindre." (And languages, I think. Let me know when you'll have found a circus that you'll want to join.) Sonya smirked at him, waiting the few moments he needed to work his way through her statements.

His irritated wet-cat look was reward enough for her. She shrugged at him, smiled prettily, and shooed him out of her room so she could get back to planning.

Her latest contracted job wouldn't let her skate by without actually tackling private home security. From the minute details she had it looked as if her contractor had a relationship that soured, and he/she/it wanted to either reclaim or have something stolen from the other party.

Private property was a hell of a lot harder to get the blueprints for than public. Depending on the age of whatever home she'd be breaking into, there was the possibility there weren't any blueprints available.

On this next heist, it was entirely possible she'd be going in without much information to work off.

XLVII (Sunday the 9th of April, 1961. Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.)

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"You're not listening to me at all, are you?"

"…no. What was it that you wanted again?"

Tatiana huffed disgustedly, slouching into the grass next to her foster sister. "Do. You. Want. My. Team. To. Help. You. Out?"

"Oh." Sonya blinked at her a couple times, probably more to refocus than to look at her. "Erm… no? It's not going to be that hard."

"Do you even know which heist we're talking about?"

"The… private residence one?" She tried hesitantly, grimacing at the flat look the older girl gifted her with. "Oh, for the love of… Tatiana, do you want to come with me when I rob a jewelry store?"

She considered it for a minute, because pulling a job with a skilled thief did sound like some fun. Also, she wouldn't have to split the take with seven other Mafiya kids… just one foster sister. "I don't want to, but I wouldn't mind. You sure you not… I don't know… trying too hard?"

"Trying too hard for what?"

"To prove yourself a better thief that Lisa or Arseniy figured you would end up as."

Sonya blankly stared at Tatiana for a long, silent moment. "…what?"

"They pegged you as a petty thief! Maybe one that could open a way for others if you worked in a group, but mostly a pickpocket." When it didn't look as if she understood why her older sister was upset on her behalf, she pulled herself upright and set her hands on the younger girl's shoulders. "I would understand if you're doing so much to ensure you can make it as a cat burglar on your own, but it doesn't seem like it."

"I'm not, really. My first heist was for that. I proved myself better, so I'm no longer worried about it."

"So why… look. You've done two jewelry stores, an antique store, and a museum all within about a year. You're planning on adding a private residence and another jewelry store in the next few weeks. Why so many this year? There's no reason to overwork or overburden yourself. Mistakes are made that way, remember."

"I have to do this private residence to keep in good standing in Mafia Land for the year. The jewelry store is actually for a personal project I'm working on, which might end up being useful for the clan." The younger thief defended herself while peeling the safecracker's hands off, a normal reaction that was a bit depressing in full honesty, frowning slightly up at her. "I'm not planning on anything else until I have to go back and do another two contracts, so I stay in Mafia Land's good graces next year."

She gave up, flinging herself back down to the ground in a huff. "You're so much like an old woman. I don't understand why you're working so hard, you're only ten."

"Again, I'm almost eleven… sort of. I'm ten and some months, thank you very much."

That sounded catty and snotty, almost a reflection of her age that Sonya didn't usually act like.

She grinned up at the pickpocket-turned-cat burglar. "Cherep yell at you about this too?"

The completely flat expression on her face answered that question. "I don't understand why the both of you have to continually remind me."

"You don't act your age." Tatiana helpfully informed her, stretching out so she could cross her ankles and fold her hands beneath her head. "Be a kid for once, not a tiny and boring old woman."

Sonya's fingers twitched, even as twisted as they were in the grass beneath them. The book she had been reading while they spent time together in the park lay abandoned in her lap. "I don't feel like a kid, Tatiana. Why act differently when I could be myself?"

"Why push yourself when you don't have to?"

She gave her a disgusted look. "It's better than having nothing to do."

"But when we have nothing to do you can read all the books you want!" Obvious temptations didn't do the trick, but the redhead had half expected that.

"I ran out of books to read."

She hadn't been expecting that.

"What, really?" When all she did was roll her eyes, the older girl propped herself up and took the situation seriously. Mostly. "The world must be ending."

The blonde heaved a sigh, closing the book she had been reading and lightly smacking Tatiana on the head with it. "Not helping."

"Sorry, sorry… not really, but still."

If she was being honest with herself, she was a little surprised the two of them were wasting some time away together. Normally, Sonya would duck out to bother Cherep or wander the city when she had the time to spare rather than spend any amount of time being lazy.

Unfortunately for the blonde girl, or fortunately for Tatiana, their foster brother was currently taking his school placement tests. For Lisa would then be able to handle his education records for him and not have to send him to a school.

Which left the foster sisters home alone together, and with her slightly scrambling for something for them to do together. Occasions like this one were rare enough as it was, when the tiny thief slowed down enough for her to catch up.

Much to her own despair, the best option Tatiana could think of was the jewelry heist suggestion. "You really sure you wouldn't mind me coming with you?"

"For…? Oh, right. No, I don't mind. It's in three weeks, after I get back."

"An overnight trip?"

"Plan on at least three days. One to get there and scout the place, one to rob, the last to recover and leave. Doing it overnight that one time wiped me out, so we're doing this a bit more slowly."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Cherep deserved a damn medal. That was the longest conversation she ever had with Sonya on any one topic, and while she did have to mentally flail for another it hadn't derailed the whole conversation.

XLVIII (Monday the 24th of April, 1961. Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.)

Stealing, either from or into and out of, private residences was very different from stealing out of public business venues.

When Sonya started looking for someplace to call home, she was going to nix all buildings that had balconies. A more obvious 'steal from me' sign there never was, and garden terraces with climbing vines were perfectly placed routes to the second floor… if not socially acceptable methods to scale a building by.

Getting in, and therefore getting out, was going to be stupidly easy.

The trickier of the features her latest heist gave her was the lack of guards. Instead, homes had people living in them that held to no specific routine and could pop up at any time.

That was slightly nerve-wracking to work around.

Additionally, homes old enough had creaking spots littered throughout its floors. Her ballet and gymnastic training allowed her to stop putting weight down the moment she heard any wood groaning, but if anyone was listening hard enough it was still obvious where she was.

It was slow going, both in being careful where she put her feet and trying to remain mostly silent while moving, which only increased the likelihood that someone would wake up and want either a glass of water or the bathroom and find a little thief wandering around instead.

According to her contract, what she was looking for was in the second-floor study. Yet again a rather useless paperweight, probably asked for because of the sentimental value attached rather than the price tag.

Sometimes what people wanted stolen from others occasionally baffled her, amusing as it was to wonder what events led to the requested contracts in Mafia Land.

After three bedrooms, two of which were occupied, and a rather nicely done bath Sonya finally found the upstairs study.

Since she planned on waiting ten or so minutes to ensure she hadn't woken anyone and it was mostly safe to make her ponderous way out, she located the small bronze statue she had been requested to steal. Then, with a little time to kill, peered at the book titles displayed on the bookcases littered around the room. The lights were off, so she only had dim moonlight by which to read.

It wasn't a good idea. She knew it, adding more books to both her load right now and the piles of them she had at home wasn't something she should do. While stealing other things to throw off any attempts to hunt her down was a thing she tended to do, if she kept stealing books someone might catch on the same thief was responsible for everything.

Tatiana would also tease her relentlessly about her developing bibliomania.

Distracted as she was, she still heard the creak of a less-than-ideally oiled door swinging open.

Diving under the ornate and heavy desk got her cover, if badly picked since under the desk was such an obvious move. Slinking around to the corner of the furniture in the still dark room, the tiny blonde pulled herself up short when the lights flicked on.

Moving now would be stupid, and she was just thankful the statue was still where she found it.

Whoever it was that was up moved in a lumbering way slowly, probably not quite fully awake. Sonya slid herself over to the other side of the desk, keeping herself low and as close to the wood as possible. When the footfalls sounded like they were rounding one side of the furniture, she carefully crawled around to keep the desk between whoever that was and herself.

"Vitya?"

With a wince, she rolled herself under a couch to take herself out of any possible sights from both the desk and the doorway. Curling herself up so her tiny form was solidly in the shadow the couch cast on the floor.

The grey-haired old man, who had probably been on his way to get an alcoholic nightcap, didn't bother to turn around at the woman's voice calling out.

Sonya kept an ear on where they both were all throughout their quiet conversation. She didn't really need to know the man had a drinking problem, as that was obvious since it was the early morning hours and he had gone straight for a glass already. She also didn't appreciate being forced to listen to what was probably his wife scold him for it either.

By the time the two of them finally switched the lights off and shuffled back to bed, their uninvited guest was firmly of the opinion they owed her some of their books. Not just for the indignity of taking shelter under the damn couch, but mostly for the gossip session she had been forced to listen to.

Since it would be another hour or two before she felt safe enough to take the statue and leave, she had the time to pick out a couple good ones instead of whatever she could grab. More deliberate picks would lend more weight to the assumption she had been after books more than the figure, at least.

There were a couple foreign history books on display, the type that looked old and probably not censored of anything the country would've been embarrassed by. Since she had been on the lookout for more, ever since she found that Adolph Hitler assassination thing in her world history text, a few of those would be going home with her.

As she packed up both the statue of a strangely stylized mermaid and a few tomes, Sonya decided the only way this heist could have been more uncomfortable that it had been would be if the owners of the home had dogs.

Thankfully, they seemed to be more partial to cats than dogs. She had already passed the housecat on her way in, and the damned thing had just glared haughtily at her.

XLIX (Thursday the 27th of April, 1961. Arseniy & Lisa's home, Moscow, Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.)

"Cherep?" Sonya poked her head into his room, pushing the door farther when he waved a hand at her in acknowledgement. "Got a moment?"

"Um… sure?" His purple head of hair popped up on the other side of an engine he somehow convinced Lisa to let him bring into the house and set up in his room. Consequently, his room smelled like oil and metal and the scent was even clinging to his clothing nowadays.

She was mostly sure that was a car engine, but where he got it or what he intended to do with it was beyond her. "So… Dmitriy's leaving."

"I heard."

As he had finished his training and was a fully working thief, opting out of trying for vor for now, the young mechanic had decided to leave the more light-fingered jobs to other Zolotovs and instead work on their clan's fleet of vehicles. Dmitriy was entirely of the kind of guy you'd take a stolen car to, so it'd get reworked into looking like a different car than the guy that would do the stealing in the first place. He could if he had a reason for it, and proved that, but he hadn't been interested in continuing to carjack for a living.

Now, instead of living over a garage nearby, her old childhood friend was going to be moving farther into Moscow and working for the clan. That knocked off Cherep's favorite thing to do most days, going to the garage and getting dirty instead of following Sonya around and watching her pick pockets.

The main hangout and headquarters for the Zolotov clan was a bit too far for a casual walk, part of the reason Dmitriy was moving out of the neighborhood in the first place.

Which might explain the hunk of oil crusted metal currently occupying her brother's bedroom floor. It was entirely possible it was a pacifying gesture, so she didn't have a reason to hunt her friend down and express her displeasure to him again.

He hadn't tried again after his first meeting with her foster brother ending with her demanding a favor to cancel out the one she owed him and his presence as her sparring partner.

"Right, well… I had an idea."

Her brother hauled himself up on his bed, carelessly smearing the grease on his arms around with a similarly dirty rag, giving her an expectant look.

"How would you like to learn to pick locks?" She didn't let him do more than pull a face at the suggestion, continuing in a rush. "Not like for what I learned to do it for, just to know how."

He blinked at her blankly, and the thief bit her lower lip.

"Really?"

"It's a thought I had, since apparently you don't really like the self-defense lessons Aleksandr is giving you." Enough so that he'd been skipping them when she wasn't there. Again, Cherep's passive-aggressive protesting methods at work. "So instead of fighting off whoever would try to kidnap you again, I thought I might as well teach you how to escape if you need it."

He flushed slightly, raking a hand through his short hair out of both embarrassment and confusion and leaving an oily smear in the strands. "Was that why you wanted me to learn?"

"…what did you think I was doing this all for?"

She wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to know. Especially since he started fidgeting, something he hadn't done around her for nearly a year.

"Erm… I thought you wanted me to join… this." The colossal dork waved a hand around, as if to encompass the whole neighborhood with the multitude of Zolotov trainees that called it home.

Sonya made a rude sound, skirting around his engine block and settling herself on his bed too. "I knew full well you'd never really like this life. I've actually been trying to keep you out of it. Why do you think I warned you about all the ways my clan could sink their claws into you before you could do any of it?"

Cherep chewed on that thought for a very long, very awkward moment. "Well… um."

Reaching behind her, Sonya snagged his pillow and smacked him upside the head with it.

"Right… sorry. Ow."

"That could not have hurt. It's a pillow."

"You forget your strength sometimes." Defended the preteen, still rubbing the side of his head she had hit. "Soft or not, they can still hurt."

She huffed, hugging the pillow to her chest.

She hadn't quite gotten the hang of the meditation exercises recommended by her book for Flame users, and rarely could she do more than merely warm the tips of her fingers. If she didn't want to be a circus sideshow freak with her stupid strength, she really had to get a hang of it sometime soon.

"Anyways, so… my suggestion?"

"You sure they're not going to ask something I don't want to do from me?"

"The worst you'll be expected to do is keep an ear out for any Zolotov thieves in trouble, or any rumor about trouble coming our way. That's for this living arrangement, and pretty typical for anyone a Mafiya syndicate helps out. Since I'm teaching you, I decide what to demand in return." Sonya stuck her nose in the air at his incredulous expression. "I demand you help me out if I ever get engine trouble in my life."

Cherep's expression twisted into amused, digging his still dirty hand into his hair again. "That I can agree with… as long as this 'request' has a time limit of a couple years."

"What? Why?"

"Locks change, right? Over time they'd get harder. I might need more lessons, so then you'll get more years on that warranty."

She blinked a few times, as she hadn't thought of that. "Well yes. I suppose you may be right."

"May?" He echoed, a smirk creeping across his face to replace the smile.

"May. We'll see."

L (Sunday the 21st of May, 1961. Arseniy & Lisa's home, Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.)

With all the traveling going on in Sonya's life, Tatiana got stuck with plotting out which jewelry store the foster sisters would rob.

Damn it all, she had new books to be read…

The moment Arseniy brought them both home after her last trip to Mafia Land for the year, the blonde was either showing Cherep how to figure out which picks he would need for different locks or helping their elder sister figure out the logistics of their future heist.

Having done a jewelry store once before she did have a few suggestions from hard won experience, but the redhead looked rather determined on putting the basis of a plan together herself.

Lisa was all for the girls doing a job together, claiming Tatiana would benefit from both the planning and doing and Sonya would get more experience in working with other thieves.

The safecracker then learned that older buildings weren't the best ones to target even if getting their blueprints was easier, planning the heist was radically different than doing one, and got acquainted with Sod's Law. The former pickpocket showed her how to use ventilation ducts to get around stealthily, and they both still had to play keep away with the three guards the store they were robbing employed.

Again, Sonya ended up grabbing more than she had planned on. Part of that was her foster sister's insistence that if the blonde had the strength to carry more then they should use that, and part of it was merely moments of opportunity that became available to them while on site.

Their target had been a newer branch store of a rather successful jewelry business, unlike the little and old privately owned one the younger sister had started herself out on. Since she only wanted certain gems herself, Sonya had been more selective in her stealing than her older sister.

They still started from the back rooms and worked forward, which left them an escape route in case something went sour fast or one of the guards were extra vigilant. The contents of three safes and one stocked workroom later, they poked around the display cases to see if there was anything they could take.

Unlike her last jewelry heist, the clerks hadn't secured their display pieces under the counters. However, the girls did get several pieces that hadn't been on display and were stored under the glass cases. Tatiana, running a risk that Sonya did not appreciate in the least, even managed to steal the necklace off one of the window displays in between guard patrols.

Instead of spending hours stuck in another building's ventilation shaft, they instead lowered the slimmer blonde and their loot to the ground via the rope they brought while the redhead found her own way down using two conveniently close brick walls.

It took them another day to get home, sewing the gems and jewelry into the same internal pocketed blankets the former pickpocket had used for her first heist and catching a train back to Moscow in the evening.

Spilling the loot out under Arseniy's eye went faster with four hands, and while gold and silver bricks were reserved for their clan's cut of the proceeds… the physically younger thief instead selected a few gemstones rather than have her take sold to the local fence.

"Why do you want the stones?"

"Remember the rings in that weapon shop? I think I might be able to find a replacement on my own, it's just…"

Tatiana smirked at the pile before them. "Just… there might be more rocks in whatever shade than you planned on?"

Sonya wrinkled her nose mostly in sour agreement but kept her eye on the pile that was starting just in front of her. Even if she only took all the purple and red stones, for Cloud and Storm Flames, that was still going to be a large chunk of money she'd be trying to destroy.

Maybe this hadn't been the best idea…

From one store purple gemstones came in variations of alexandrite, amethyst, purple garnet, purple opal, purple sapphire, purple diamonds, purple tourmaline, purple spinel, tanzanite, and purple zircon. Reds came in types like red beryl, ruby, red diamonds, imperial topaz, red spinel, red tourmaline, carnelian, red sunstone, garnet, fire opals, red agate, red fluorite, red jasper, and red tiger's eye.

That was all just one jewelry store's stock jewelry and gemstones, if she looked elsewhere she'd probably find different stones in the same colors.

…worst of all, she had the possibility of Storm Flames. It might just end up with her destroying any kind of ring she tried to wear anyways without it ever boosting her Flames enough to get a handle on her abilities.

"Well… this idea is a bust."

"Maybe if we get one of those rings, and get it appraised at another jewelry shop?" Suggested the redhead lightly around a yawn. "There's no guarantee those rings are gems, they might just be a kind of crystal shaped to look like one."

The blonde scowled at her out of petty irritability, not in true anger. "Stop poking holes in my plans. I need something to do, thank you."

"There's nothing to say you can't try, just pick one or two from every category and sell the rest." Lisa temporized, picking through the selection still waiting to be sorted. "Try a different gem every week, record the results, and we'll see if we can't find something that will work for you."

The younger thief eyed her still considerable pile once they finished parting down the unset rocks. There were still almost fifty different loose gemstones of varying sizes. "This will still take a while."

"You've got the time, why not?" Tatiana lightly shoved at Sonya's shoulder, getting up since her take had been sorted out to be sold off already.

"Point." Allowed the blonde girl, sweeping her gems into a small velvet bag they had stolen them in.

Vory v Zakone (Singular vor, Plural vory) – Thieves-in-Law, title awarded by one's peers (like a peerage title rather than a military rank)

Mama – Mother

Ded – Grandfather